fter the demise of British Empire in 1947, Bengal was partitioned as a province of West Pakistan with being renamed as East Pakistan. Dhaka was declared as its capital. Despite of adequate resources and demographic weight of East Pakistan, the entire Pakistan’s government and military was largely dominated by the upper classes from the west.
The government of Pakistan — dominated largely by the west — declared Urdu as the only official language of the entire Pakistan which triggered a massive dissatisfaction among the people of the east. On 21 February, 1952, Bengali students in East Pakistan rose up for the mother tongue and protested against this decision. As police open fired to their possession, several students died for defending their language. The glorified sacrifice of these martyrs is now observed not only in Bangladesh but also all over the world as International Mother Language Day.
